TO check cases of over-concentration of teachers in schools in urban areas while there is insufficiency in rural areas, Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole says the state would carry out reforms on the “recruitment, deployment, promotion and posting” of teachers in the state to ensure fairness in the system and promote optimum performance of teachers.

He stated this during a meeting with the chairman and members of the State Post Primary Education Board in his office in Benin City.

“The key issue in appointment is competence and in recruiting these numbers, we would start from the top, from those who score the highest mark. The idea here is to give priority to the employment of the best in our schools. Our teachers must be the best. In those days, when you are very brilliant, you go into academics.

“Just that things have changed now, the brilliant ones go into banking, oil industry, they want to go to customs, immigration and all of that. But we need the best brains to impart knowledge and that is why we are ready to pay special incentives to those who are involved in science subjects. But to do that, I must be convinced that these people would make a difference in terms of the quality of knowledge they impart and we can measure it through performance of our kids in various examinations and periodically, we have other ways to do assessments.”

“We can even work out bonuses for schools that have done well, for pupils that have done well, because, like they say, if the child has not learnt, it might well be because the teacher has not taught,” Oshiomhole said.